Property Entrepreneurs: We caught up with the founders of YOPA after Savills’ significant cash injection into the hybrid estate agency July 6, 2016 Selling your home online just got a whole lot more interesting. In just one week in June, two newcomers into the estate agency market received major injections of cash, to help grow their businesses. Established estate agent Savills has backed upstart YOPA, while Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone has put his substantial bet on HouseSimple. [...]
What the doctor ordered: London Doctors Clinic’s Seth Rankin talks Papua New Guinea, crowdfunding and bringing choice to patients June 20, 2016 If you’ve ever needed to pop to the doctors that same day, and you didn’t have the time or inclination to go to a walk-in centre, you may well have found yourself going to a London Doctors Clinic. If you’re based in central London, there’s one within ten minutes of where you work. At £55 for 15 [...]
Why Avant’s Al Goldstein is excited about partnering with big banks June 16, 2016 Despite being just four years’ old, Avant Credit is one of the largest marketplace lenders in the alternative finance industry. The US firm has been operating in the UK since 2013, and has issued over half a million loans to consumers, totalling more than $3bn in originations. Avant isn’t a P2P lender – it uses [...]
The Tate Modern extension will help transform the gallery into the world’s most cutting edge art space June 14, 2016 It’s been 14 years in the planning, it’s four years overdue, and it cost £260m. But the extension to the Tate Modern will finally throw it’s doors open to the public on Friday. So has the project, the recipient of the largest cultural fundraising effort ever seen in the UK, been worth the wait? Has [...]
HP Elite X2 1012 review: An enterprise-level, two-in-one laptop that’s too business-minded to be much fun June 8, 2016 There’s a great deal to dislike about the HP Elite X2 1012, a business-level, tablet-laptop hybrid with a sleek and detachable aluminium keyboard and a surprisingly lovely iPhone 5 style chamfered finish. You’ve got ugly little grievances, like the default, HP-branded desktop wallpaper, which appears to be a picture of a petri dish filled with [...]
London’s iconic black cabs to come clean as Chinese owner raises $400m to electrify taxi fleet May 19, 2016 The Chinese owner of London’s iconic black cab has raised $400m (£273.8m) in a bid to introduce "clean taxis" on London roads. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. secured the funds to electrify black cabs through a green bond sale that is rumoured to have been oversubscribed by eight times. The company intends to use the funds for developing [...]
EasyJet “Sneakairs”: Airline is testing smart shoes to help customers explore destinations May 13, 2016 No joke: EasyJet wants to launch "Sneakairs" – smart shoes – to help travellers explore cities. The airline has unveiled a prototype smart shoe with built-in technology that aims to help customers explore new cities with ease, so they can take in sites and surroundings. Read more: EasyJet is testing hybrid planes using hydrogen fuel [...]
Gtech eBike review: The battery-assisted push bike that takes the effort out of uphill slogs May 11, 2016 Getting around London has become remarkably easier in the last couple of years, thanks to our old friend electricity. Not content with powering our homes, the popular energy source has turned its attentions to bikes, scooters and weird little unicycle things of every conceivable shape and size, allowing us to zip around the city with [...]
The new Volvo XC90 is more luxurious than the equivalent Jaguar, with the loveliest SUV interior this side of a Bentley Bentayga April 29, 2016 The Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription feels incredibly Swedish, in the best possible sense; classy and restrained, with a hint of noir about it. If a forensic psychologist arrived at your door in one of these, investigating the murder of your business associate, you would be very worried indeed. It eloquently answers any misgivings we might [...]
Industry 4.0: How disruptive technology can rescue British manufacturing April 7, 2016 Industry 4.0 is revolutionising the way international manufacturers and construction companies approach business, but the UK has a long way to go if its industry is to keep pace with its European rivals. This new world is based on digitisation, which blurs the line between the virtual and the physical. Connected products and “smart” machines [...]